This week, MANAUS is offering an equity symposium, including opportunities to connect with professional equity consultants. Here’s Bryan Alvarez-Terrezas, manager of MANAUS’ Equity Action Project .
" I really want the space to be that entry point for folks. So being able to hold the space to bring in these experts to present on a specific topic, share their knowledge, and also make connections between the consultants and the community leaders that will be attending, um, to hopefully inspire, you know, future collaboration and what have you.
And so we're excited about that. For the language justice piece, I'm excited that part of it is gonna be in Spanish and so, We're trying to, you know, incorporate that into the full symposium. We're gonna have interpretation offered throughout the event, so really trying to open up who has access to these types of conversations."
Full Circle Strategies, a company from Houston that offers the help of equity consultants, has three team members speaking at the event. One of them is co-owner Kenya Johnson, who will be speaking on anti-racism.
"I'll be covering best practices for organizations who wanna commit to this work. I use a lot of personal stories to help validate what this work is about and the nuance that comes with being on an anti-racist journey. I think the biggest takeaway in having such a rich background in the organizing and social work and in teaching is that it gave me an opportunity to build relationships.
Across different communities, people with different backgrounds figure out what does it look like for me to offer something that would be helpful in, in their own life, in their own ex personal experiences like, so then I collect all these stories. You know, I have 30 year career of different stories about what it feels like to engage in movement building work, or to be committed to racial justice."
MANAUS is also sponsoring a raffle prize of a one-hour session with a consultant. The symposium is offered free of charge for anyone interested, Friday, May 19 from 9am to 3:30pm at the Third Street Center in Carbondale.
